Improvement in carriage-seats



UNITED Swans FATE T FFIOE.

IMPROVEMENT IN CARRIAGE-SEATS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 156,709., dated November 10, 1874; application filed J uly 17, 187 4.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, CHRISTIAN K. MEL- LINGER and PATRICK McNIFF, both of the city of Harrisburg, county of Dauphin and State of Pennsylvania, have made certain carriage-body, having its near side or wainscoting removed and showing the seats shifted in position as a one-seated carriage. Fig. 2 is a similar view of the same, showing the seats in position for use as a two-seated carriage. Fig. 8 is also a similar view of the same, showing the front seat shifted forward and the hinged panel folded, to favor ingress and egress at the fore end of the carriage-body, and thus dispensing with side doors. Fig. 4 is a side view of the front-seat support-s. Fig. 5 is a perspective view of one of the folding-panel supports, or latch device. Fig. 6 is a view of the stud and base-plates beneath the front end of the rear seat. Fig. 7 is a top view of the folding panel and its supports, it being a transverse sectional view of the carriage body. 7

Our invention relates specially to close-paneled carriages, but also to open-seated vehicles, in which the seats are movable on fixed bases, to make a one-seated or a two-seated carriage at pleasure; and the novel and use ful features thereof are, first, seat-supports provided with rigid midway-socketed standards, projected vertically from the sills of the fixtures, the connecting-bars of the vibrating parallelogram being stopped and braced both ways in and by the midway standards; second, seat-supports provided with rigidly-attached uprights to support the front transverse panel of the carriage-body, and otherwise adapted to shift and support a three-way seat; third, a folding transverse panel to favor ingress and egress at the carriage-front;

fourth, a bracing latch device to support the folding panel when closed and to stay the parts embraced by the latch device; fifth, certain stud and base plates as auxiliary supports for the rear seats.

Theform of the several parts of our inven- .to the under side of the seat-board in the usual manner, and sill B is attached to the inner side of the rail t m, as shown. The limbs A A are parallel and are limited each way in their movements by the pitch of the walls of the sockets in the sills, as indicated in Fig. 4. The parts 0 on sills B are rigidlyattached uprights thereon, properly slanted to be attached to and support the lower section V of the transverse panel, as shown in Figs. 1, 2, and 3. F F are the limbs of the rear-seat supporting-irons, and N N are the similar sills into which the limbs are pivoted, through ears formed on the sills, the sockets thus formed being obliquely flaredlike those of the front-seat irons, and the seat S is attached on the top sill N in the usual manner. The base-sill N is attached on the top of the rail t m, as shown. The limbs F F are straight bars, parallel with each other, and their movements carry the seat S horizontally to the po sitions shown in Figs. 1 and 2. The parts H on the rear-seat irons are midway sockets or rests on the brackets L, located on the middle of the sills N or equidistant from the pivots therein for the limbs F. The standards H L, composed each of socket and bracket, are rigid extensions of the sills N, and the sockets H are oppositely pitched, as indicated in Fig. 1, to form rests for the limbs F, to limit the forward and rearward throw thereof in positions as shown in Figs. 1 and 2, and the rests are laterally flanged to receive the said limbs snugly between them, that, when at rest in the sockets, they may resist lateral strain, and thus more securely brace the seat than when the said limbs are guided solely by the sockets in the sills N. The standards H L are of proper length to freely pass each other in shifting their positions.

The seat-irons A D B allow the seat S to be shifted to the three positions as shown,

and the seat-irons F H N allow the seat S to be shifted to the two positions as shown. The seat S is guided, when in its positions, not only by the arms F resting in the flanged sockets H, but also by a stud-plate, a, lodged as shown in Figs. 6 and 3, which registers in grooved base-plate I), located on the top rail of the carriage-boxing. A similarly-grooved keeper-plate, It, on the front top rail corresponds with the plate a on the rear top rail. The base-plate R has also the office of holding the seat S against the rests made for it by means of a hooked spring on the under side of the seat S, and not shown. The hooked end of the spring is allowed to fall flush into the recess made for it in plate B when the seat S is in position, as shown in Fig. 2.

The folding panel V is hinged at K to the section V, and it is stopped, when erect, by latches thrown across the cuts made in the front facing of the carriage-boxing, for the travel of the front seat-irons when the seat S is shifted to its several positions, and the latches form rests for said seat when in use.

The latch devices, one at each end of the folding panel V, are peculiar, and need special description. Each of said devices consists of a hooked, dented, pivoted latch, l h g, a baseplate provided with a stop, as, wing f, and hook r, all made as shown in Fig. 5, to serve, in combination with the angular keeper d d e on the post I, to cross-bar the space between said post and the panel V, and to hold the parts thus joined braced. The stop 00 at the rear of the pivot g on plate WV arrests the fall of the latch when released from its keeper, and an angular hook, 1", on plate W, at its front end, receives the latch into it when it is engagedin its keeper d d e. The latch has an angular dent, G, or ofl'setted part, near its middle, into which the knuckle of the seatiron fits snugly, and against which it rests. This offsetted part of the latch fits snugly, by the jambs thus formed on its rear side, in the space between the hook r and the keeper d d" c, and the hook l on the front end of the latch snugly bites the keeper-hook 0, thus keeping the parts securely joined to resist lateral or rearward strain thereon.

We are aware that seat-irons describing parallelograms in their movements in shifting the seats are not new; and such we do not 'claim broadly; but

What we regard as new and useful, and what we claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States, is-

1. The socketed sills N, adapted for themsertion of the parallel limbs F, and having the socketed half-way standards H L, rigidly attached to the sills, in combination with the limbs F, substantially as and for the purpose.

set forth.

2. In a seat-support, the sill B, having the rigidly-attached standard 0, in combination with the transverse part V, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

3. The folding transverse panel V, hinged at its base to the stationary part V, erected by the seat-irons B O, in combination with the seat S, said panel being provided with the latch devices, and being a connecting means to support and to free the seat, substantially as shown and described.

4. The device composed of the latch l h G g,

the baseplate W :01", and the keeper d d c, 

